Beautifully Sad Photos of a Dying Airline

Captain Zabalaga's crew went on strike because of unpaid salaries. Image: Nick Ballon

A dead bird found on the seat of an L.A.B. airplane. Image: Nick Ballon

L.A.B.'s hangar. The airline's headquarters are located right next to the Cochabamba Airport. Image: Nick Ballon

A worker relaxes during his ample downtime. Image: Nick Ballon

An unused flight simulator. Image: Nick Ballon

A worker in a space used to store unused airplane seats. Image: Nick Ballon

The cover of Ezekiel 36:36. Image: Nick Ballon

Nick Ballon was making one of his annual trips to Bolivia when he noticed the headquarters of Lloyd Aereo Boliviano next to the Jorge Wilstermann Airport in Cochabamba. Though the U.K.-based photographer knew little about the history of the airline, he found himself intrigued by the dilapidated buildings that sat on this massive plot of prime real estate. “Originally it was that pure inquisitive nature photographers have that drew me to L.A.B.,” says Ballon.

As it turned out, L.A.B. was facing some dire conditions: Though the company still owned 21 hectares of Bolivian land and employed nearly 200 people, it hadn’t flown a passenger since 2007, when the government shut it down on account of unpaid taxes and its ever-worsening financial situation. Ballon, who is half Bolivian, knew there was a story there, so he set out to document the airline’s constant battle against its seemingly inevitable demise. The resulting project, Ezekiel 36:36(named after L.A.B.’s last operating plane), is a multimedia look at the present-day story of one of the world’s oldest airlines.

“We would spend days wandering around the almost-abandoned facilities.”

Ballon and Bolivian writer Amaru Villanueva Rance spent six months documenting every aspect of L.A.B., from the airline’s property to the dedicated workers who continued to show up despite the airline’s deep financial problems. “The openness and trust I was given in terms of access and the right to roam L.A.B. was unparalleled to anything I have ever experienced before,” he recalls. “We would spend days wandering around the almost-abandoned airline facilities structuring how the text and image would tell the story.” Ballon captured the crumbling headquarters with a wide-format camera, resulting in sweeping images of empty hangars, disorderly storage spaces and run-down conference rooms.

The most melancholy of the images, a dead bird lying on the upholstery of an old, faded airplane seat, is featured on the cover of Ballon’s book. The photograph, with its drab colors and morbid subject matter, is depressing to look at, but it’s also beautiful, in the way that honest depictions of a situation have a way of being. “I could see all the promise of a beautiful photographic project amidst all the sadness of their situation,” Ballon says. All of Ezekiel’s photographs toe the line between melancholy, poeticism and hope, which Ballon believes to be an apt description of Bolivia’s condition as a country. “The VIP guided facilities tour at the beginning of my first visit was personally the hardest part,” he says. “Being shown around a company once considered a national treasure and historically important to Bolivia having transformed into a failing company of faded grandeur.”

Originally, Ballon envisioned the photo essay as a stand-alone book, but as his investigation deepened, the project flourished into a website and booklet. Designed by Mark and Chris Thomson of London-based Studio Thomson, the extra content showcases archival material, original texts and graphics that give readers a better idea of how L.A.B. looked during its heyday. “Nick had not only compiled a beautiful series of contemporary photographs at L.A.B. but had also collected stories, oddities and archive material that we felt really captured the human story through its history that is sometimes lost within large corporations,” they explain. In the end, they continued, “We became as obsessed as Nick that this body of work was to be the airline’s swan song.”